introducing....

Stella Kate
09.09.2010
8 pounds, 5 ounces
19-1/4 inches

The c-section went perfect, my OB came up to visit in the afternoon and said that there was a little extra scar tissue, which they were expecting with it being my 4th c-section but once he was inside everything looked really good, so that was good to hear! Stella is a great baby so far. She's very quiet, only peeps when she is hungry. She slept most of the day, but is nursing like a champ which makes my heart sing with joy! I'll post more pictures later. We'll be at the hospital until Sunday sometime.

38 weeks

We had our last appointment with my OB on Tuesday morning. The c-section is officially scheduled for Thursday, September 9...exactly one week from today we get to meet our new baby girl!! I'm so excited and ready to be done. I still have my lovely rash, it had cleared up pretty well, but by Monday the itching was driving me nuts again and I was hardly sleeping. So I mentioned it to my OB and he put me on another round of oral steroids to help clear it up, though it won't be completely gone until sometime after birth, but the itching has subsided for the most part. We'll be sharing our news as soon as possible next week. Check back next week for the official birth announcement. We learned when we had Adeline that the hospital now has wi-fi, so we'll be bringing the computer with to keep everyone updated!

36 weeks

Between weeks 35 and 36 I started developing a rash, it got worse as the days went on. It started the weekend of August 13th when my mom, step-dad, sister and niece were at our house, at first I thought it was just heat rash because it was hot that weekend and we were busy cooking meals for our freezer and we had went shopping to the outlet mall, but by Monday morning I had red spots all over my entire body. I called my doctor about it and he suggested taking 2 Zyrtec a day instead of 1 that was taking for seasonal allergies, he said that should help with the itching, but it just wasn't cutting it. I had an appointment with him in just a few days so I was going to try and wait it out until then. Tuesday I went to work, I was looking pretty beat up, the rash had started on my face and my eyes were a little swollen, when I got back from lunch the rash looked even worse than it did when I got to work that morning. My co-workers highly suggested that I go to the doctor. Of course Tuesday is my doctors day off, but I did manage to get an appointment with one of the other doctors at the clinic. I saw their only female physician and she was very helpful, she diagnosed me with PUPPP She gave me an liquid solution to rub onto the spots, it only gave me very minimal relief. Wednesday morning when I woke up my eyes were so swollen I could hardly get them open enough to put my contacts in. The rash continued to worsen, thankfully I was seeing my doctor first thing Thursday morning. He gave me a steroid shot to help with the rash along an oral steroid to take for 6 days, it helped to clear up the rash pretty well, but I'm still very itchy and it looks like I have chicken pox all over my body. The picture below was taken on Thursday evening after the steroid shot and a full days dose of the oral steroid, I looked much worse Thursday morning, this was an improvement if you can believe that! We're getting very excited for our baby girl to arrive, we go see the OB in the morning to finalize everything before the c-section next week!

accomplished.

That is how I feel after this weekend. I love the sense of accomplishment. Makes me feel so good. There still is a lot to be accomplished around the house, but we knocked a big task off the list which was really nice.

My mom, step-dad, sister and niece all came down for the weekend. Originally it was just going to be my mom and step-dad and last week my sister decided she'd come too. When my mom and I had talked a while ago about them coming down to visit,I had asked her if she would help me make some freezer meals for after baby arrives and she agreed that that was a good idea.

They arrived just before 9:00 on Friday night. We spent part of Friday night into the early morning hours making 3 pans of lasagna (we froze 2, ate one Saturday night), we thought it was best to knock that off our list while the kiddos slept peacefully. Then Saturday when we got up we made 2 chicken pot-pies and peanut butter cookie dough. We broke up our cooking by running to the outlet mall in Medford as Amber was in search of fall clothes for Baby Hazel. We didn't spend too much time at the outlet mall, only went to two stores, it was TOO hot and miserable for me that I knew we couldn't stay long, but we did find some good deals. After we returned from shopping we made two kinds of cookie dough, chocolate chip and M&M, my mom baked some cookies and the rest we froze into balls and put them in freezer bags for later use. After dinner we made 2 more chicken potpies and 2 meatloaves. It's going to be so nice to have those meals in the freezer. The potpies are SO simple to make and so tasty, I can't wait for it to be fall! I hope to get a few more meals in my freezer between now and September 9th when baby arrives.

Friday is my last day of work at my current job and then I get to take over my new job title "Stay at Home Mom", I'm so excited, I can hardly wait. I know there will be challenges along the way, but I'm willing to accept the challenge and I will continue to pray that God lead us in the right direction and that he helps us to provide for our family.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend with the kids with Baby Hazel.

thirty-four

Thirty-four weeks down, less than five weeks to go! Crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone by. I have 8 days of work left, my last day of work is Friday, August 20th, this will also be the kids' last day of daycare. I'm looking forward to having 2 full weeks to spend with the kids before our baby girl arrives. We had an appointment with my OB on the 27th of July, everything is pretty much a go for the first week of September. His nurse will be calling me this week with the actual date of the c-section, it'll be nice to have that down so I can plan a little better for the kids. Amelia's first official day of school is Wednesday, September 8th and she'll be a "Buccaneer". So I'm hoping we can by pass the 8th as being the date for the c-section, I'm hoping for the 9th, I'd even take the 10th. I just want to see her off to her first day of school!

I had my regular appointment with my family practice doctor on Thursday, everything is looking good. I've been having quite a few contractions, but he didn't seem real concerned about it, told me to just monitor them and if they get worse to come see him or if they are too bad to go to labor and delivery. He said "Some babies are just ready a little sooner" I'm hoping that they don't get worse and we can make it to at least the end of August.



We took Amelia school shopping yesterday. In the morning the kids and I went with Mary while Kevin and Ron golfed. Grandma got Amelia two outfits at Penney's and got her two new pairs of tennis shoes for school, a pair of new Puma's (Amelia's favorite!) and her first pair of New Balance tennis shoes, she all of a sudden seems so grown up! Of course Grandma couldn't leave Paul and Addie out either, so Paul got a new pair of Puma's and Addie got her first pair of Nike's. I'm putting them all aside for now, because I don't want them to get them dirty just yet and it's still nice enough for sandals and flip flops! Then in the afternoon Kevin and I took her shopping "all by herself" for her school supplies. We also picked up a couple shirts and a sweatshirt. I need to evaluate what I have for clothes so far and need to see what else I need to get for her. She had a great time shopping and kept saying "I really like shopping with out my brother and sister, Thank you!" We also hit Ikea to browse as long as we didn't have the other kids and we took her out for dinner at Old Chicago. She pretty much thought she was top dog being out with mom and dad by herself! I'm still having a hard time believing that she's going into kindergarten this fall, where did the last five and a half years go?!

That's about all on us for now. I need to try and get better about blogging before the baby arrives!

32/33 weeks

I'm a little behind here, but thought I'd get this one posted and I'll need to post my 34 week picture later today!

30 weeks!

I had my 30 week doctor appointment today, it lasted all of about 15 minutes from start to finish! Gotta love those nice short appointments. My blood pressure looked great again, which I'm always thankful for, towards the end of my pregnancies it usually raises a bit, but I'm still in the clear it was 106/69. I haven't experienced much swelling yet, thankfully!! Paul was my only pregnancy that I endured most of summer with and I wasn't even 30 weeks until the end of August when I was pregnant with him. I'm hoping I can make it through the rest of my pregnancy without having any swelling. It's hard to believe we only have about 9 weeks left until we get to meet our little girl. She's a busy little lady already, it's fun watching my stomach move all over the place. Amelia and Paul are getting more excited for their baby sister to arrive. Kevin and I have an appointment with my OB scheduled for July 27th for a consult to set up the c-section, so that's kind of exciting. Then I go back to see my regular doctor on August 5th.

We have a lot of changes coming in the future at our house, aside from adding the sixth member of our family, I am also quitting my job to be a stay at home mom. I'm very excited about this opportunity, as are the kids. They are asking me every day if it's my last day of work and if we're staying home. I feel bad having to tell them that no, I have to head to work. I have applied for a home daycare provider license and am in the final stages of that. I talked to one of my bosses about my plans on Friday the 2nd of July and I told my other boss and my co-workers the following week. I think it went over well. I know it'll be bittersweet putting on my scrubs for the last time, but I'm really looking forward to being home with the kids. I feel like I've missed out on 5 years of them growing up and I don't want to miss out on another 5 years. I plan to do daycare to provide a bit of income to our family to help cover some of the bills and health insurance, since heaven knows those costs are so ridiculous. And with Amelia going to school this fall, it'll be nice to be home when she gets home from school as well. Tentatively my last day of work will be August 20th, and that should give me a couple weeks to spend time with the three kids, get things in line for baby's arrival and to prepare everything for Amelia to head to kindergarten!

28 weeks

Last Thursday I hit the 28 week mark, this pregnancy has been flying by! I also had my 28 week check up with my doctor. Everything is looking great so far, her heart rate was 145 beats per minute and my blood pressure was 113/67, apparently I was cool as a cucumber, I felt worked up going into my appointment because I was also having my glucose test done and I always get nervous that I'll have to do the three hour test. My doctor left me a message on Friday morning that I passed, so that was good news. I go back to see my doctor on the 8th of July and then two weeks after that we'll schedule an appointment with my OB to schedule the c-section. Can't believe it's getting closer to the end!

Here are some new comparison pictures. I've definitely grown in the last few weeks!

sister sister

My sister and I are both pregnant. She is due July 3rd, and is about 10 weeks ahead of me. We had her baby shower over the weekend and today I took some maternity pics for her and when we were done my dad took some on his camera and my aunt took some on mine. Here are a couple of pictures that my dad took. I think it'll be fun to have these in the future since most likely we'll never be pregnant together again.

weight. lifted.

It's been a nerve wracking couple of weeks for us here. I had a follow-up ultrasound a couple weeks ago (as you may recall) after my 18 week ultrasound because of the ventricles in the baby's brain were measuring too large, which could mean down syndrome, etc. It took about a week and a half to get the results of the second ultrasound from my doctor. When he called me he informed me that he wanted to refer me to a larger hospital to have a Level 2 ultrasound. We were referred to Minnesota Perinatal Physicians for the level 2 ultrasound, they are part of Abbott Northwestern Hospital and specialize in high risk pregnancies. This is the part that scared me, after viewing their website to find out what to expect and saw that they specialized in high risk pregnancies, I was like "Great, and I'm not suppose to lose any sleep over this." So there was a lot on our minds in the week and a half between talking to my doctor and then going to see the perinatologist for the ultrasound. I was relieved when today finally arrived. The ultrasound itself was about 45+ minutes long with the ultrasound tech, she went over everything with a fine tooth comb, took several measurements, many more than I'm accustomed to. Then she left to give the doctor a run down and give him some of my information. He came in, did a short ultrasound for himself and looked over all of the images himself and said he couldn't find a single thing wrong with the baby. He basically looked at us like "Why are you here?" He didn't say that, but it seemed like he was wondering that. The ventricles were measuring within normal range, which was a huge relief. It definitely felt like a giant weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound. We decided since it had been a stressful few weeks and it was our third ultrasound, we decided to find out what we were having and we're excited to announce we're having another GIRL!

Profile

Her cute little leg and foot!

Front on view of baby's face.

24 weeks

22 weeks

We had a follow-up ultrasound this morning to recheck a few measurements, according to the ultrasound tech, everything looks good, but we'll wait for the official results from our doctor next week once he gets the radiologist report. We got a few more pics of our little one, He or she is very cute if I do say so myself! Baby's heart rate was 134 beats per minute, same as it was last week at my regular doctor appointment. We can't wait to meet our little one. Baby was curled up into a ball today, must have been sleeping!

All snuggled up!

Knees up the the chest.

22 weeks.

20 weeks down, 19 to go

18 weeks down

...21 to go. This pregnancy is flying right by! Hard to believe that I'm this far into the pregnancy already. Only four more days until our ultrasound, I can't wait! According to babycenter.com the baby is the length of a green pepper and weighs in at a whopping 7 ounces. Here are my most recent belly pictures.